This invention pertains to mobile containers for hauling particulate material and particularly road surfacing materials such as gravel or crushed rock. Such materials are customarily dumped onto the road surface from the bottom of a truck or trailer device. An alternative type of carrier dumps from the rear of a box by tilting the front of the box upward.
Currently used devices have certain drawbacks. The rear dump device requires hydraulic mechanism and a box, the bottom of which is as high as the rear wheels so that tilting of the front will carry the material over the wheels. This design is useful in smaller trucks, but is difficult in large capacity semi-trailers both because of the higher center of gravity which is necessary, and because of the force required to tilt a full box with such a large load.
The center dump trailer has a different problem. Dumping a large load of stone or gravel between the wheels of the trailer creates a large mound of material which may interfere with pulling the trailer from the location. Typically such loads are dumped from a slowly moving trailer to avoid the high mounding. This type of dumping may result in very uneven distribution of the material which may also be spread out over a large area.
By the present invention, a trailer is provided with the capability of dumping to the side. Because the trailer can be "jack-knifed" into place and then pulled sharply to one side, the load can be fully dumped while the trailer is stationary and the dumped load can be avoided by the sharp turn on pulling away from the location of the drop. Thus, unnecessary and undesired spreading of the load is avoided.